The present disclosure relates generally to infusion pumping and in particular to air detection and elimination associated with infusion pumping.
Introduction of air into a patient's bloodstream via infusion pumping or drug delivery is a well known risk. Internationally recognized standards, such as IEC 60601, and recommendations from industry groups such as ECRI, call for infusion pumps to stop and alarm upon the detection of air bubbles of a minimum size, such as in the fifty to two-hundred fifty micro-liter (“μl”) range. The interruption of drug delivery, however has its own significant drawbacks, such as interrupting the nurse or caregiver for the air-in-line event. The interruption can impact nursing labor hours and affect the overall provision of care. Also, the nurse's response can be delayed because of more pressing patient issues. There is also a risk of blood stream infection (“BSI”) due to opening the intravenous (“IV”) system to remove the air.
More importantly, stopping an IV drug infusion can lead to problems especially during a critical therapy, in the intensive care unit (“ICU”) or during operating (“OR”) environments, in which patients can be administered multiple IV medications, some of which are short acting drugs for which their flow stoppage can lead to blood pressure variation, arrthymia or other instability. The drugs are critical to the procedure or therapy being performed, which itself may be critical, leading to a negative situation when the IV pumping is stopped immediately after air-in-line detection.
An improved IV pump air management procedure is needed accordingly to avoid interruption of therapy.